HOB Salons Annual Photographic Competition Winners
Established five years ago, the success of the last few years saw the fifth HOB Salons’ Photographic Competition take place on Sunday the 8th of February 2015! The carefully selected finalists from across the 24 salon group arrived at the Wella London Studios to compete for their chance to be entered into Wella’s Trend Vision 2015 to represent the award winning group in the highly competitive regional heats.
A history of huge success on both a National and International scale at the Wella Trend Vision Awards including a number of global and UK wins secured saw the HOB Photographic Competition return to welcome the companies 600 plus staff to get creative as they enter and compete in 5 categories. With opportunities to be involved in upcoming shoots and shows for the company, the HOB Photographic Competition is a platform for all staff within the HOB Salons group. As always an age restriction of 30 was set in place for the Young Talent category whilst Colour was open to all, mirroring the Trend Vision Competition. The winners of these two categories are rewarded with golden tickets to represent HOB in their entries for the esteemed Trend Vision 2015 competition.
The competition kicked off with the competitors recreating their initial entry look which they submitted in December 2014 for the first round. Next it was into the judging room for the Young Talent finalists as they presented their model to the scrutinizing judges, showing their mood boards and inspirations to the panel which included HOB Salons’ Directors Paul Simbler, Clive Collins and HJ’s four time British Hairdresser of the Year, Akin Konizi as well as members of the HOB Salons Creative and Education Team.
After a day of styling, dressing and presentations, the evening awards ceremony saw the night compared by Akin, Clive and Paul, followed by a screening of the HOB Creative Team’s show from the 2014 International Trend Vision final in Monaco where last year’s Young Talent winner Nestor Sanchez went on to win the Global Wella Trend Vision title, bringing a real buzz to the evening before the lucky winners were announced.
First to be revealed was Image of the Year runner-up Laurence Holman of HOB Whetstone followed shortly by winner Gary Hartley of the Leeds branch. Next, scooping runner-up in Men’s Image of the Year was St. Albans' Oliver Moorehouse with winner Nick Lee of HOB Man taking the crown. For Hair-Up, runner-up Aude Bouziouane from Camden took to the stage whilst Baker Street winner Sophie Rane took this category by storm. The penultimate award of the night saw Alex Freeman of HOB Leeds secure his Trend Vision place for Colour for the second year running and Leeds Franchisee Shabaz Hussain collected the award on his behalf to take it back to the salon. Lastly, it was Young Talent, and Baker Streets Marcos Garcia scooped runner-up, with fellow Baker Street Stylist William Webb taking the winning title as both celebrated their chance to now go and enter Trend Vision this year!
Speaking of the night, Young Talent winner William beamed 'I’m so honoured to have won! The competition was very tough and as my first year with HOB Salons and entering the HOB Photographic Competition, I am so excited to have won Young Talent securing my place to enter Trend Vision 15! It is so inspiring to be part of this and I am thankful to HOB Salons for this opportunity.'
With the last five years of this competition showing great success including HOB Camden’s Nestor Sanchez winning the UK Young Talent category last year and going on to win the International final in Monaco, this year’s winners will now begin preparing for the prestigious competition as they get set to represent HOB Salons and fight for a regional place at Wella’s 2015 Trend Vision Awards.